The Sculpture by the Sea Access Program was introduced at Bondi in partnership with the Art Gallery New South Wales (AGNSW) and Access Volunteer Guide Coordinator Carolyn Bethwaite in 2009, offering ‘Touch Tours’ to six participating adults who were blind and/or vision impaired. Renamed ‘Tactile Tours’ in 2010 they have continued to provide a unique opportunity for adults and children with a range of additional needs to experience sculpture through touch and informed dialogue with experienced AGNSW access volunteer guides, Sculpture by the Sea educators and the artists themselves.
Tactile Tours also offer audio descriptions to participants that are blind or vision-impaired. A trained audio describer produces a verbal version of an image, a narration of all the visual elements of sculpture – colour, form, scale, texture, and setting – using words that are succinct, vivid and imaginative to convey an overall representation of the work. This provides participants with a combination of the different elements of each sculpture that include critical pieces of information to provide an overall representation of the piece. To find out more about booking one of these tours please see our Education and Access bookings page.
Accessible Toilets are available in the Marks Park toilet block. There are larger stalls with handrails in both the women’s and men’s toilet blocks. There is an additional single occupancy accessible toilet in the toilet block open from 6am-8:30pm each day the exhibition is open. Visitors requiring a hoist are advised to bring their own.
The coastal 2 km walk runs from the South end of Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach, and is connected by various walkways and stairs. Visitors are advised that there is little wheelchair access along the full length of the sculpture walk and seating along the pathways is also limited.
If you are planning a group tour of the exhibition and require assistance with limited mobility group access, please call the Site Office on +61 2 8399 0233.
For further enquiries, please contact our team:
E: [email protected]
P: (02) 8399 0233